Al-Haleddeyi St. may seem like an unlikely location for the next stage of Jewish growth in Jerusalem, but this small street that descends from the Christian quarter to Ha Gai Street into what most consider the Muslim quarter, is experiencing an influx of Jewish residents.
Once considered the main street in the Jewish quarter, Al-Haleddeyi St. known first as Hevron Street, because of the high percentage of Jewish residents, saw its Jewish residents driven out in waves between 1929 and 1937. Many of the Old City Rabbis lived on it, including Rav Diskin. At its peak it had 1,299 Jewish residents and was a bustling center of Jewish life in the late 1800 and early 1900’s.
Now, with organizations like Ateret Cohanim as well as private individuals, cases amounting to squatting are getting reexamined by the courts. One by one, properties that belonged to Jewish communal boards are being returned to their former Jewish owners or caretaker committees.
“We aren’t a banana republic and so if our very respected legal system and courts rule that the Arabs don’t have rights in the complex or that they have to vacate the premises, then so be it,” says Daniel Luria, executive director of Ateret Cohanim. “The same court system that backed the government and gave its stamp of approval to expel and relocate 10,000 Jewish residents and citizens from Gush Katif, should also be respected and adhered in these cases inside the Old City of Jerusalem. Behind the court case is really a story of Jews being driven from the area in the 1920s and 1930s by Arabs and their return to the area in these times. “
This past week I had the opportunity to see first hand one of the newest acquisitions on Al-Haleddeyi St. As I walked onto Al-Haleddeyi St,. Sam Goodman, a local activist and I turned left and then a quick right. Arabs paid no attention to us as we veered into a small courtyard belonging to an unassuming building. “This is resting on the Hekdesh [Jewish Communal Property],” Sam says to me as we walk straight ahead into the bottom of the building. “Above us are still Arabs, with one Jewish family on top as well. We all get along.”
The apartment is dark and in need of renovations. The former occupants left most of their belongings behind before they left. Unlike typical acquisitions that involve a buyer, seller, and often a few middlemen, apartments that change hands due to a court decision can be far more chaotic in terms of entry.
Interior of newest Jewish home on Al-Haleddiya St.
The apartment Sam and I were standing in went back to the courts several times, but like most of the houses on Al-Haleddeyi St. the evidence of land theft and squatting on the part of the Arab population was incontrovertible.
Up and down Al-Haleddeyi St. more and more Jews are moving in. Israeli flags can be seen out the windows and on the rooftops. The bustling of Jews is beginning to return. In many ways the quarter system, enacted by the British is being busted apart. Each new acquisition and court case that goes in favor of the Jews returns the city back to its original state, where a decolonization of Western backed Arab land theft is undone
For now Sam lives in the apartment, standing guard until renovations are complete. “Once there is a family that wants to move in, I’ll move out. My job is complete.” In fact since I saw it, the apartment already has a waiting list and more court cases are pending. Jewish life is returning to Al- Haleddeyi St. Perhaps in a not too distant future it will be renamed Hevron St. as it once was known.
By mid-1945 when the Allied Forces had helped to liberate the last vestiges of the German occupation of Europe and end the atrocious concentration camps and gas chambers in Auschwitz and other locations, more than 6 million European Jews had been murdered in the genocide which became known as the Holocaust or the Shoah. The extent and ramifications of this evil boggled the mind of every decent and civilized person and society around the world. But the deed had been done and the only reasonable option left for our collective humanity was this all-important resolve: “Never Again.” The international community resolved from then onwards that as a collective and as individual nations, societies and peoples around the world, we can all make efforts and contribute all we can to help prevent, stop and punish all crimes against humanity, including genocides anywhere it is taking place in the world. Today 2016, there is an ongoing genocide of Igbo people in Nigeria. And it is the responsibility of all people everywhere to help stop it and punish the perpetrators of this heinous crime.
Since the last 15 years the agitation for the reestablishment of the State of Biafra has gained traction. For most observers who remember the events that led to the declaration of an independent State of Biafra on May 30, 1967, almost fifty years ago, this current agitation does not come to them as a surprise. It has always been expected. Frederick Forsyth, the British author who witnessed the Nigerian genocide of the Igbo in the 1960s made this observation in his 1968 book on the subject; The Biafra Story: The Making of an African Legend:
“What had started as a belief was transmuted to total conviction; that they could never again live with Nigerians. From this stems the primordial political reality of the present situation. Biafra cannot be killed by anything short of total eradication of the people who make her. For even under total occupation Biafra would sooner with or without Colonel Ojukwu, rise up again.” (Emeka Ojukwu led the Biafran resistance against genocide and the often reminisced Biafran revolution.)
By the time the Igbo Genocide ended in 1970, 3.5 million Biafrans of which 3.1 million were Igbo, had been murdered by Nigerians with help from the Arab League as spearheaded by Egypt which supplied, pro bono the pilots who bombed only civilian targets in Biafra. The British government and USSR (today’s Russia being the successor state) supplied the bomber jets, the speed boats and other arms that enabled the genocidal Nigerian state to carry out an effective blocked of Biafra during the siege. Of the total deaths, more than 2 million died from starvation resulting from the economic blocked.
While the atrocity against the Igbo was going on in the west coast of Africa; in faraway New York in the United States, in the Spring of 1968, a particularly significant lone-conscientious protest of the evil took place. On the first anniversary of the Biafran resistance a young orthodox Jewish student of the Columbia University, Bruce Mayrock after writing hundreds of letters to world leaders to help stop the genocide to no avail, then chose to set himself afire on the premises of the United Nations protesting the genocide of Biafrans. He died a few hours later at the hospital from the wounds he sustained from the fire. The sign he had with him at the UN compound read: “Please help stop the genocide of 9 million Biafrans.” That sign is as current today 2016 as it was half a century ago when Mayrock first displayed it.
With the persistent state murders of Igbo people in Nigeria by government agents, the State of Israel and its citizens and other humanitarian minded people around the world today can still help to stop the continued genocide of the Igbo in Nigeria. As this is being written the government of the State of Israel continues to do business with the genocidal Nigerian state; cooperating closely with Nigeria’s security agencies as well as in other sectors of its economy. The government and policy makers in Israel can help stop the ongoing genocide of the Igbo today by boycotting all dealings with the Nigerian government. For a democratic and progressive state like Israel doing business with a genocidal state like Nigeria is nothing different from the state sponsorship of state terrorism, human rights violation and genocide. On another hand, it can be compared to any responsible or civilized state in the 1930s and early 40s aiding, abating and being complicit with Hitler’s Nazi regime in Germany.
An independent State of Biafra became inevitable in mid-1967 because of the ethnic and religious cleansing of the Igbo population in 1966 by the people and government of Nigeria. The massacre in which 100,000 Igbo and other easterners were killed between May 29, 1966 and May 30, 1967, is also known as the 1966 Pogrom. It was a government organized and executed purge of the Nigerian country through massacres, looting and expulsion of its Igbo population. This systematic elimination of a people based on their ethnic and religious classification by a national government was led by the Nigeria military dictator Yakubu Gowon. It was aimed at cleansing the Nigerian society of all traces of Igbo people whom the others had come to hate and loath for being “too enterprising, dominating all aspects of the society and unwilling to adopt the Islamic way of worship.”
After the Igbo and other easterners had been expelled from Nigeria, more than 3 million of them were displaced. They went back to their ancestral homeland, and in an effort to protect and preserve what was left of their battered lives, they chose the path of Self Determination and independence. They unilaterally declared a sovereign independent state which they called Republic of Biafra. Upon this declaration, the Nigerian state wedged a war of aggression against the Biafran state. The Nigerian state had two clearly declared intentions on embarking on that misadventure of aggression. One, they wanted to capture Biafra land for the Islamic caliphate of Sokoto and convert the oil wealth in the Biafran homeland. Secondly, they wanted to exterminate the entire adult population of Biafra and convert Igbo children to Islam.
It was these and other factors that led states like Tanzania to choose to stand by Biafrans’ decision to choose to die fighting for their freedom. After Biafra was declared independent, the State of Tanzania clearly understood that it was only an independent sovereign state, separate from Nigeria that could help stop the genocide of Biafrans. Tanzania quickly recognized and advocated for Biafra’s right to self-determination and independence. In April of 1968 the Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere declared his country’s support for Igbo survival in these immutable and timeless indisputable words:
“Tanzania has recognized the State of Israel and will continue to do so because of its belief that every people must have some place in the world where they are not liable to be rejected by their fellow citizens. But the Biafrans have now suffered the same kind of rejection within their state that the Jews of Germany experienced. Fortunately, they already had a homeland.
“They have retreated to it for their own protection, and for the same reason – after all other efforts had failed – they have declared it to be an independent state. In the light of these circumstances, Tanzania feels obliged to recognize the setback to African unity which has occurred. We therefore recognize the State of Biafra as an independent sovereign entity, and as a member of the community of nations. Only by this act of recognition can we remain true to our conviction that the purpose of society, and of all political organization, is the service of Man.”
With the current political and social events in Nigeria, and with the renewed mass killings of the Igbo by Nigerian state agents, Nyerere’s words could have been spoken in April of 2016. An independent state of Biafra is still as valid in 2016 as it was in 1966. For some Biafrans like Col. Joe Achuzia, Biafra was defeated in 1970 but was not surrendered. Achuzia as part of Biafrans who negotiated peace with the Nigerian authority at the end of the war, insists that Biafrans did not submit to Nigeria any instrument of surrender or any such thing like Biafra’s insignia and symbols. The import of Achuzia’s claims is that what Biafrans negotiated with Nigeria in 1970 was cessation of hostilities or an armistice but not the sovereignty, the right to independence and the right to self-determination of the people of Biafra.
After fifty years and with the continuation of the systematic elimination and marginalization of Igbo people in Nigeria, the time is now ripe for the Biafran people – the Igbo, to reclaim their sovereignty and independence from Nigeria. Therefore, it is necessary to note that in this renewed all-important life and death effort, the Igbo will appreciate the help and support of all well-meaning individuals and states like Israel which had gone through the same genocidal experience such as the Igbo are going through today in Nigeria. The truth is that since on the 29th day of May, 1966 the ceased forever to be Nigerians.
Reports continue to race in about scores of wounded and dead Biafrans. With the violence initiated by gangs backed by the Nigerian government, one tries to grapple with the sheer trantsparent morality of both the White House and the State Department. Obama’s foreign policy has always been an enigma and yet the Biafra is the most baffling of all. The American government continues to back a divisive Islamist over the law abiding people in Biafra. Yet it should not come as a surprise to those that have watched the US government’s treatment of Israel that, America relishes in playing both sides against one another. After all conflict is good for business, America’s arms business.
In the case of Biafra, which is home to a growing Jewish population as well as a Hebraic form of Christianity, the pretenses of balancing the conflict have gone completely out the window. The question is not is Biafra different, but why is it being treated different?
Echoes of the Slave Trade
Within Biafra, the Igbo are the most populous. They also happened to have made up the majority of the slave population ripped from West Africa and transferred to the Americas. The presence and perseverance of the Igbo in a similar fashion to the Jewish Nation is a reminder of just how eternal spirit and hope are. The West hates to be reminded of its hypocrisy. Biafra is a constant reminder that in truth the West stands for little.
The pronouncements of rights and freedoms are just that, clever talking points given to stake the moral high ground while painting others as deficient in the realm of ethics. Yet one must be blind not to see the ridiculousness of it all. The West was the largest perpetrator of the destruction of the African continent, including Israel which rests on its North Eastern tip than any other group of Nations. Starting with the crushing of the Judean Revolt all the way to destructive policies of post colonial Africa, the West has wiped out whole cultures and memories causing everlasting trauma.
Biafra reminds us who the real enemy is. The Hausa to the North, much like the Arabs that surround Israel are pawns, enabled by those Arabist bureaucrats at the State Department as well as the neo-colonial policies of Europe. Biafra and more specifically, the Igbo reveals how hollow Obama’s and the Lefts pseudo empathy of African suffering really is. By picking Islam over traditional indigenous cultures, they have shredded Pan Africanism the same way they have called into question Israel’s very connection to its Land.
Biafra, more than anything exposes the lie that Obama and the West actually care. They don’t, unless it is about money.
The parallel struggles of Biafra and Israel are a reminder that good people need to stand up. Yet, the situation is also a wake up call to Israel, that now is the time to become the leader it is destined to and take a central role in protecting and freeing Biafra. Doing so will send a message to the World, that morality is something worth fighting for.
“Israel is not the problem on the Temple Mount; Israel is the solution,”Bibi Netanyahu said back in October 2015. “We’re keeping the status quo, we’re the only ones who will do it, and we will continue to do this in a responsible, serious manner.”
Over six months after those tense fall and winter months, when it looked like all was about to unravel under an increasing terror wave from Palestinian radicals, the spring seemed to bring an odd calmness. Even the Temple Mount, the supposed heart of the conflict saw a growing amount of Jews being allowed up.
To many, the Prime Minister’s approach seemed to have worked and yet we see, like always what the real reason is for the reprieve in Palestinian violence in connection to Jerusalem.
With the help of Regavim and other activists, a situation came to light concerning the Muslim Waqf’s intention to alter the status quo by harming the walls of the Temple Mount in order to facilitate increased access for Muslim worshipers in time for Ramadan in June. The site in question is on the Mount’s South side and would irrevocably damage a declared antiquities site.
In March 2016 the Israel Antiquities Authority filed a lawsuit against the Muslim Waqf in the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court that petitioned the court to give a permanent injunction prohibiting the continued work of the illegal site and restitution. The injunction was in fact granted, yet one day later the Prime Minister’s office intervened and the injunction was lifted.
This is Bibi’s style. He talks tough and behind the scenes gives the Palestinian Arabs some gifts in order to remain calm. This particular gift is set to be explosive and would be the first time since the Waqf dug up ancient artifacts on the Temple Mount that they would be allowed to completely alter the status quo.
In early May the Antiquities Authority sent a message to the court insisting the government appeared set on settling the matter through discussion with the Waqf. In fact, the political echelon admitted that they wanted time to have a dialogue and asked for an extension that would lead until July.
“In the meantime, and during the period in which you are active on the political level and try to finish the matter through dialogue with the Waqf, the illegal construction at the archaeological site continues, in violation of the order to stop work against them with total disregard for their obligations according to the law and instead attempt to talk with them,” lawyers for the Antiquities Authority charged in written statement. “The construction works are expected to be completed at the archaeological site with the start of Ramadan in about two weeks. The experience of our client says that as soon as work on the toilets will begin, it will be difficult for future enforcement actions.”
This week right wing NGO Regavim issued the following the statement: “This week, we issued an urgent letter to the prime minister, the mayor of Jerusalem and Minister Regev that the (IAA) is under her wing. We are also preparing a petition on the matter to the Supreme Court. This destruction of Jewish History can not continue on the Temple Mount.”
The question of status quo is constantly pushed to frame actions by Jews on the Temple Mount as encroachment, while actions by Muslims and their supporters are merely restoring that which the Jewish presence altered. The real question for the government is at what cost do we incur by letting the Muslim Waqf radically change our holiest site in exchange for some quiet. Giving up on the Temple Mount sets the stage for the rest of Jerusalem and so forth. The government would be wise to admit to itself and to the public that the farce of a “status quo” is just that, a lie and if the Waqf cannot uphold its part of the agreement, we no longer need to as well.
Israeli NGOs were among the first to arrive after the disaster and are among the last to leave, running a variety of programs in stricken areas.
April 25, 2015, an earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale devastated Nepal. Just over two weeks later, the country was rattled again by a magnitude 7.3 quake centered northeast of Kathmandu. Nearly 9,000 people were killed, 22,000 injured and hundreds of thousands of homes destroyed or damaged in the twin quakes.
As with most international disasters, Israel was among the first countries to send humanitarian aid in many forms. The lifesaving and rehabilitation activities of the Israeli government, military and various NGOs were so significant that the Nepalese came to see Israel as a source of inspiration.
Whether it was pulling survivors from the rubble, delivering babies and treating the injured, cheering traumatized children, teaching resilience techniques, rebuilding villages or introducing lifesaving innovations, Israelis were prominent in all aspects of relief work.
A year later, Israeli nonprofits Tevel b’Tzedek (The Earth in Justice) and IsraAID are still on the scene helping Nepali villagers get back on their feet, and expect to be there for some time to come.
The Earth in Justice
Tevel b’Tzedek, founded by Rabbi Micha Odenheimer with the goal of engaging young Jews and Israelis in the developing world, began its humanitarian work in Nepal in 2007. The original plan was to cycle volunteers to one impoverished district at a time.
“When the earthquake hit, we were in the second cycle,” Deputy Director Elana Kaminka tells ISRAEL21c. “But the quake hit the communities from the first cycle and we knew these people, so we redeployed to those communities in addition to continuing with the ones in the second cycle, which also was hit by the earthquake. In addition, we took on a third district that was affected.”
The organization’s connections and understanding of the region were of invaluable help to other NGOs arriving on the scene.
“The JDC [Jewish Joint Distribution Committee], which is one of our donors, showed up the day after the earthquake,” says Kaminka. “We’re not a disaster-relief organization and they have more expertise in that but had no knowledge of Nepal and no staff here, so we joined forces and have been working closely together.”
One of their joint projects is a youth service program modeled after the Israeli shnat sherut, year of national service, in earthquake-devastated villages. “We train and provide a small stipend to 40 youth leaders to take a role in rebuilding their own communities,” says Kaminka. “People always think about Israeli technology and agriculture, and we do introduce technologies such as drip irrigation, but Israeli social models are also interesting.”
Tevel helped an Israeli medical team from Natan International Humanitarian Aid with logistics immediately after the earthquake; and recently finished a project with Magen David Adom, Israel’s national emergency-response network, to distribute building supplies and food to 800 Nepali families.
With support from the Pears Foundation, Shusterman Foundation and Crown Foundation, Tevel has also worked with volunteers from the Jewish Coalition for Disaster Relief, World Jewish Relief and others.
Bishnu Chapagain, the Nepali director of Tevel’s activities in Nepal, earned his doctorate in plant science in Israel at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. His agricultural training is critical to Tevel’s long-term project to introduce Nepali farmers to Israeli farming practices.
Currently, a variety of Tevel recovery programs in agriculture, education, disaster-risk reduction, resilience, crisis intervention and income generation are benefiting some 25,000 villagers in six of Nepal’s most impoverished regions.
Naomi Baum, retired founder-director of the Resilience Unit at theIsrael Center for the Treatment of Psychotrauma of Jerusalem’s Herzog Hospital, teaching resilience techniques to Nepalese women on behalf of Tevel b’Tzedek. Photo via Facebook
The projects are run by 80 Nepali and 59 Israeli staff and volunteers working side by side, fulfilling a three-year commitment to the government of Nepal.
“We don’t come and tell them what to do,” stresses Kaminka. “They tell us what they need help with and we approach our work as a partnership with them. Our focus is not only giving out things but developing people in the community who can take on these projects long after we’re gone.”
This year, Tevel b’Tzedek was the first Israeli organization recognized in Nepal as an INGO (international NGO) among 127 others, including major players such as Save the Children and Care International. “This is a major accomplishment for the Israeli development world. The other NGOs see that there is an Israeli face at the table,” says Kaminka.
“We are now recruiting for the fall 2016 sessions of both our one-monthExchange for Change program and seven-month Tevel Fellowship program, which mixes pairs of Israeli and Nepali volunteers in some of the poorest and most remote villages. We need great people who want to help rebuild Nepal.”
IsraAID
IsraAID arrived in Nepal the second day after the earthquake to help rescue survivors and establish a temporary field clinic in northeast Nepal.
The organization now runs a variety of humanitarian projects in Nepal under the direction of 55 Nepali and five Israeli staffers, says IsraAID Global Partnership Director Yotam Polizer, who visits every other month and directs all the NGO’s activities in Asia. “We’ll be there at least three more years because these are all long-term initiatives,” he tells ISRAEL21c.
Polizer was quite familiar with the country before the earthquake through his previous positions at Tevel b’Tzedek and at the Israeli embassy in Kathmandu.
“I had gained knowledge of Nepal and its language and had many contacts there, so I was able to build a team quickly when IsraAID arrived,” Polizer tells ISRAEL21c.
Working in all six affected districts with support from the American Jewish Committee and Jewish Federation network, IsraAID brings in Israeli specialists to train local NGOs to run initiatives such as an emotional support hotline. “We have an office and training center in Kathmandu,” says Polizer.
Ahead of this past winter, IsraAID and a Korean NGO distributed more than 1,000 packages of warm clothing to Nepali children affected by the earthquake. Polizer points out that the goal was not only to protect the children from the cold but also to ensure their ability to attend school during the winter.
IsraAID and a partner NGO distributed warm clothing to 1,000 children in earthquake-affected communities of Nepal. Photo courtesy of IsraAID Nepal
“We helped establish a factory that now employs 130 women and is expanding to employ 500 in the next year or so. They sell honey to local stores and to tourists in Nepal. Each woman receives one beehive stacked with a colony of local Himalayan bees to start her venture,” Polizer says.
IsraAID’s HoneyAID project equips and trains Nepalese women to be beekeepers. Photo courtesy of IsraAID Nepal
“Theater is an important part of the Nepali culture, and they don’t have electricity or Internet so it’s the best way to deliver messages,” explains Polizer. “Altogether, more than 70,000 people have taken part in our theater program, and the model is now being adopted by UNICEF.”
As IsraAID also continues to work actively in Japan five years after the tsunami (the only foreign organization still on the ground after arriving to help in relief efforts in March 2011), several partnerships have developed between its teams in Fukushima and Nepal.
The Japanese government is funding Disaster Specialist Education, a program where Israeli and Japanese experts who have worked with IsraAID in Fukushima are sent to a Nepali university to train a cadre of disaster-relief professionals such as social workers.
Polizer is especially excited about an exchange program involving five high school students from Nepal and five from Fukushima.
“The Nepali teens came to Japan and they learned from one another and created bonds,” says Polizer. “This was significant because it’s rare for victims of different disasters to make contact with one another. We hope to do more of this. We are fundraising for it now because it was really successful.”
